Saturday, February 20, 2010

Lemon and Finger Lime Curd

Cinzia from Cindystar is hosting this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging and I've finally managed to get my fingers around a native Australian ingredient - Finger limes

You can probably understand why these are sometimes called "lime caviar" but the Finger lime (Citrus australasica) is a native rainforest tree found in parts of New South Wales and Queensland. They also come in various shades of red and pink as well as green and yellow - in fact there are over 75 varieties.

Those little capsules pop in your mouth releasing a refreshing and tangy citrus juice - it's not as sharp as lemon or lime. The intensity of flavour also varies between colours.

For the recipe, I'm highlighting that popping sensation and adding finger limes to a simple lemon curd.

Prepare the finger limes:
I've used one red and one green for this recipe - the green is almost translucent in the curd.
Split the finger limes down the centre with a sharp knife, making sure you just slice through the skin only - a box cutter does this job quite well. Spread open and using a spoon, scrap the seeds from the finger lime.

Make the curd:
Whisk the egg yolks and the sugar until light and fluffy and the sugar has dissolved. Place this into a saucepan along with the lemon juice and butter. Put the saucepan over a low heat and whisk constantly until it just starts to thicken - it thickens to a custard consistency quite quickly so you need to remove it from the heat source at the first sign of this.

Tip in the finger lime seeds and fold gently through, ensuring they are well distributed through the curd. Pour into a sterilised container and seal. When cool, store in the fridge.

The colour is a combination of good eggs, butter and lemon juice - a deep rich yellow that almost calls out to be eaten.

It's an amazing thing this curd, it makes plain bread taste like cake!

Haalo, the photos are amazing!(as always) but the finger lime is incredible! I'd never heard of it and when I saw the thumbnail photo I thought the title was mistaken and it was in fact some sort of salmon roe!I've been to Australia, but never saw them either. I wish I could taste them, as I love citrus fruits. And the curd, sublime. Curds are delicious, lemon, lime, passionfruit but that one with the citrus caviar that pops looks unreal, like some sort of "sferification" from Ferrán Adrià!...only natural and more tasty!

Joanne - the lemon curd is worth making without the finger limes and then you'd wonder why you never made it before!

Thanks Colette - you often see them used as a fish roe replacement on fish dishes, or as a topping for oysters. They have been hard to find but there's a lot more growers now and you can occasionally find them even in supermarkets.

really never seen!I wonder if I could ever find it in Italy, but it looks so gorgeous and smart!Whb is always giving something new to discover and learn each week, great!thanks again for participating!

Hi! I was looking for Australian recipes to include in our newsletter and I came across this recipe. This looks delicious! I hope you don't mind that I am including this recipe in our newsletter. :) Don't worry all traffic goes to your site. We will just include the link in our email/ezine.Maybe you could check it out.